Post-Practice Quote Sheet: Jim Schwartz, 08-18-10

“Originally on the schedule we were going to go full pads today, but our injury situation warranted not going full pads.

“What I really wanted to do was get the (shoulder) pads on for that run period. We have some players – DeAndre Levy is just coming back and hasn’t had many shots in shoulder pads, Louis Delmas was out there and we needed to get those guys some shoulder pad work particularly in the run stuff. But after that, we were running some other specialty period stuff, so we took them off after that.”

On if they’re practicing ‘Wildcat’ because they expect Denver to use it this weekend

“We probably won’t see Wildcat this weekend; we’ll probably see quarterback option and quarterback run stuff. Wildcat, with Miami particularly on the schedule and other teams that may do stuff like that, you have to prepare yourself in training camp. We work on a lot of things with a chance that they might come up. That’s one of the reasons why you go through training camp; you don’t want to wait until the last second to work on something. You don’t want to have three days of practice to try and accomplish or put (that) into a scheme. That’s just having some foresight and being prepared for that kind of stuff and it was a good day to get that stuff in today.”

On if he thinks that the use of the ‘Wildcat’ is just a fad or if it will be in the league long-term

“If it fits your personnel –everything works in the league if you have good personnel that fits what you want to do and you’re committed to it. A lot of teams dabble in it. There’s a lot of reasons to dabble in it; you can spread defenses thin and force them to waste a lot of preparation time for something that you may run one or two times in the game. There are other teams that if you don’t stop it, you might see it 35 or 40 times in a game. I think it’s here to stay for the teams that are committed to it and it fits their personnel. It adds a totally different dynamic to your run defense when you don’t have a quarterback that’s handing the ball off and you don’t have to account for.”

“My crystal ball is not that sharp, but they both have a chance. We’re still in training camp. You guys are worried about Denver, we’re worried about trying to practice and what we’re trying to accomplish today. When it come times to decide if they can play and how much they’ll play we’ll do that, but it’s not today.”

“He has a great opportunity because our numbers are so low out there. He’s gotten nickel snaps, he’s gotten outside snaps, he’s gotten a lot of special teams snaps; he did some nice things in the game – he had a really nice play on a bubble screen that he jammed up a wide receiver really good and did a really nice job. But then, he also got a penalty that he probably should have been able to avoid. We didn’t need to take a penalty in that situation. He’s a young player and he’s learning; this is an outstanding opportunity for him.”

“He’s really smart; he’s really got great length; he can play right and left. He just doesn’t look like a rookie. (He still) has a lot of things he needs to work on; he’s got some technique stuff and has some strength and stuff like that. From knowledge of the scheme and things like that, he’s a guy that goes out there, has low blood pressure – you know, he doesn’t panic – and he sees a lot of different things.”

“Amari is starting to come on a little bit. He’s (been) injured and missed a lot of time and got behind. I think we’re still seeing a lot of rookie inconsistencies from Amari. He’ll make a flashy play and then have another one that doesn’t look so good. He just needs to work really on being more consistent. He’s got good tools, he’s tough, he’s physical; it’s just the things of knowing the scheme inside and out and just knowing all of the situations and things like that. It’s tough on a rookie and he’s in that boat.”

“You probably won’t see very many times we have a true fullback in the game. So a guy that’s going to be on your roster that might play a little fullback, they will (play) tailback – also his role is increasing on special teams, he needs to do that as well. He’s an instinctive runner; he ran the ball an awful lot in college; he wasn’t a traditional fullback there. His skill-set is a little bit more like a big running back; he’s a change-up from what we have and I think that’s important when you’re trying to work different packages and different situations, to be able to work one of those bigger guys in there at times.”